Milutin Knežević

He was born as Mihailo Knežević on 10 January 1949 in Mijači, near Valjevo, in a Serbian Orthodox family.[1] He was baptized in the renowned Pustinja Monastery.[2]

In 1963, at age of 14 after he finished elementary school he went to the Kaona Monastery.[1] On 26 October 1963 in the Petkovica Monastery bishop Jovan Velimirović of Šabac and Valjevo tonsured him monk with name Milutin in honour of medieval king Stefan Uroš II Milutin of Serbia. On the next day he was ordained hierodeacon[2] and November 8 of same year as hieromonk at Osečina, near Valjevo. He started attending the monastic secondary school in the Ostrog Monastery in 1967, and afterwards he returned to Kaona Monastery where he becomes its head and priest.[1]

Later he studied at the Theological School of St. Sava in Belgrade. Having spent one academic year at the Belgrade Theological Faculty, he continued his studies in the United States at the Theological Faculty of St. Sava in Libertyville, Illinois, and graduated from it with best marks.[2] For six months he was the secretary of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Canada, and for six months he was the parish priest in Niagara Falls.[2]

After that he returned to Serbia and thereafter joined again his Kaona Monastery and contributed a great deal to improvement of it as a spiritual centre. In 1981 bishop Jovan Velimirović promoted him to the rank of syncellus and to a protosyncellus in 1987. In 1994 bishop Lavrentije Trifunović promoted him to the rank of hegumen and to the rank of archimandrite in 1988.[2]

In mid-2003, Counsil of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church elected him Bishop of Australia and New Zealand. On July 20, 2003, at St. Michael's Cathedral, Belgrade, Patriarch Pavle of Serbia, along with Metropolitans Nikolaj Mrđa of Dabro and Bosnia, Amfilohije Radović of Montenegro and the Littoral, and Bishops Longin Krčo of New Gračanica, Lavrentije Trifunović of Sabac and Valjevo, Irinej Gavrilović of Niš, Irinej Bulović of Bačka, Georgije Đokić of Canada and Dositej Motika of Scandinavia and Britain consecrated him bishop.[1] He was enthroned on December 30 of same year at St. Sava Monastery in Canberra, by his predecessor in Australia and New Zealand, Nikanor Bogunović.[3]

On May 27, 2006, Bishop Milutin was appointed to the restored Diocese of Valjevo. His enthronement took place on September 26 in the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord in Valjevo.[4]

He died on 30 March 2020, at University Hospital Center Dr Dragiša Mišović in Belgrade, due to complications from the COVID-19 infection.[5] He became first Eastern Orthodox bishop who died of COVID-19.[6][7][8]